How to Train Your Ancilla
by cjh2099
Summary: Yr:2555 A.D. Planet:FP-089 Research Outpost: Berk Lieutenants Hiccup H. Haddock III & Astrid Hofferson embark on an impossible mission neither signed up for. Cunning twists hinder progress as they unify against the forces of power and greed to save life as they know it. Their mission: uncover the lost technology of the Forerunners...but along the way, dark secrets are unraveled...
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One: A Fresh Start

1325 hours, February 12, 2555 (Military Calendar)/ Omega Delta System, Aboard Pelican Dropship inbound to Research Outpost Berk, Planet FP-089.

Lieutenant Astrid Hofferson cladded in her Orbital Drop Shock Trooper armor was strapped in the dimly lit cargo space of the UNSC Pelican Dropship with the rest of her team, the Valkyries. She was in deep thought remembering that only three years ago she was a cadet at the Reach Officer Academy where her only responsibilities were studies, combat exercises, and becoming the best military officer to honor her parents, who died a few years earlier fighting the Covenant. She was not expecting that back then in a few short weeks she would be presented the opportunity to avenge her parent's death during the Battle of Reach.

On that thought, her hand stoked the cold circular Covenant alloy of an Energy Sword that was attached to her hip ODST armor plate, remembering the encounter with the previous owner of the blade. Her mind jumped back in time three years who, _where the overwhelming stench of death and fresh blood filled her nostrils, and the sounds of automatic gunfire rang in her ears. The hissing sounds of discharging plasma bolts retaliated as she ran down the hall with her MA5B swinging back and forth upon her back as she rushed to the fireteam's aid. She slid to a halt and braced herself against the double door frame leading into the large reception area of the hospital. Her security forces were assigned to protect this area, only to see a marine private being lifted by his neck, begging for his life. Astrid leveled her MA5B and took aim at the Sangheili warrior only to have the marine's body block her shot. She clenched her teeth and rifle hard as the marine's pleas were silenced with the whack of the energy sword piercing his body armor and exiting his chest like a hot knife cutting butter. _

_Astrid froze in horror as she realized that the entire fire team was wiped out and she was alone with the Sangheili warrior, who adorned maroon Covenant combat armor, indicating him to be a veteran. The Sangheili removed his blade from the now limp body and threw the corpse across the room, freeing his field of vision to notice Astrid for the first time. A nerve wrenching laughter emitted from the Sangheili's throat. "One lone infidel dares oppose me hahaha!" in appalling English bellowed the Sangheili as he slowly walked towards Astrid, dragging the tip of his sword in the ground that left a trail of gashed tiles in his wake. _

_Astrid, shaking off the shock, squeezed the trigger and felt the familiar repeated kick of the rifle stock in her shoulder as her rifle spat lead at the approaching Sangheili. A brilliant blue engulfed the seven-foot build of the warrior as the bullets ricocheted off the protective energy shield. Astrid depleted her magazine and dropped her right hand to her hip to begin retrieving her M6 sidearm from its holster. The action was never completed, for Astrid was startled by the roar of defiance as the Sangheili charged the last few meters, his arm posed high above his head- preparing an overhead cut with the sword. Astrid's eyes grew large with fear at the speed and ferocity of the assault and raised her own rifle to deflect the incoming blade as she stepped into the Sangheili's guard. Her heart was racing with adrenaline as the super-heated plasma of the blade glanced off the rifle fusing the barrel and central body into useless molten slag, burning her hands from the proximity of the blade. With a yelp of pain, she dropped the now useless rifle with it achieving its goal of keeping her alive a few more seconds. _

_The moment of respite was short lived as the Sangheili yelled in frustration at Astrid's defiance and kneed her in the abdomen with enough force to send her slender frame flying into a support column a few feet away. Astrid cried in pain from the attack and spat blood out of her mouth. The pain was quickly replaced with hatred towards the Covenant, giving her new-found strength. Astrid looked up in time to see the blade descending upon her once more as the Sangheili sprang curses at her. She pushed herself off the column into a combat roll, grabbed the knife from its sheath and in one fluid movement, sprung to her feet behind the Sangheili in a combat stance. With her own roar of defiance, she used the inverted knee of the Sangheili warrior to boost herself onto the back of the warrior. The stream of abuse from the Sangheili ceased as he turned his head to the side only to watch in surprise as Astrid's blade descended on his vulnerable neck, piercing the suit lining and embedding deep into his flesh, causing him to drop the sword. _

_Astrid landed hard on the floor, jarring her bruised ribs, which caused another painful yelp to leave her lips. She turned her head to the side to notice the Sangheili warrior sink to his knees, his sword hand attempting to cover the wound on his neck that was gushing out dark purple blood. Her attention was focused on the deactivated sword on the ground a few paces away. She dragged herself towards the blade causing her wounds to flare up in protest. Clenching her teeth, she desperately grasped the handle and forced herself to stand, scanning the devastation of the room. The entrance was littered with the dozen corpses of Unggoy warriors, five-foot-tall bipedal aliens clad in environmental armor, the ground splattered with their neon blue blood and the makeshift barricade painted red from the blood of the defending fire team. Their armor still glowed orange from where the energy sword passed through, ending the marines' lives. In that daze, she was standing before the dying Sangheili warrior, her right hand gripping the handle of the blade and the left covering her bruised ribs. Sangheili made a clumsy attempt to stand and draw his plasma pistol on his own hip, but with the amount of blood lost he could not manage to grip the handle and failed. Seeing the motion, Astrid activated the sword and plunged it deep in the Sangheili's chest, her face void of emotion and coldly whispered, "Die you Bastard."_

"Hey LT, are you listening?" Cami said with a smile waving her hand in front of Astrid's face. "No LT was in deep thought, thinking of all the boys we will be meeting on this assignment, Cami," snickered Heather. The other women of the Valkyries laughed. With the memory interrupted, Astrid rolled her eyes at the jab from the green eyed, raven-haired female ODST across from her in the dropship. Then she turned her head towards the short blue eyes, blond hair ODST to her left. "I am sorry Corporal Camicazi, can you repeat your question. I was attempting to nap during this journey to Berk," Astrid deadpanned. "Oh, sorry LT, now that you are awake, have you heard anything about our new CO General Haddock? I heard that he is a giant of a man and fierce on the battlefield with the strength of a Spartan!" squealed Camicazi. Astrid raised an eyebrow at her energetic subordinate at the comparison between their new CO and a Spartan. With a dismissive look, "I have no doubt that General Haddock is strong and a good leader, but the strength of a Spartan? I need evidence to believe," stated Astrid. "On a further note ladies, on the subject of fraternizing, we are professional soldiers and I don't wait any paperwork during this assignment because you heartlessly crushed some poor man's heart!" Astrid commanded sternly. The cargo bay erupted in laughter from the other women. "The only one, hahaha, that needs to worry, hahaha, about not crushing hearts is you LT, hahaha!" Heather managed between laughter. Laughter was renewed and Astrid could no longer hold her bearing and joined in. The laughter ended when the intercom clicked open "Ladies welcome to FP-089, we will be making our atmospheric re-entry in just a moment, please remain strapped in your seats, for re-entry can get rough and thank you for flying UNSC. Next destination Research Outpost Berk," stated the pilot.

1337 hours, February 12, 2555 (Military Calendar)/ Omega Delta System, Research Outpost Berk, Planet FP-089.

Lieutenant Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III took a deep sigh as he leaned back in his chair, trying to clear his head from his current task of deciphering Forerunner encryption keys that Berk's communication tower keeps intercepting. He was the first to uncover the mystery signal six months ago during a routine maintenance check of the comms mainframe and followed protocol by making a copy of the Forerunner signal and sent it up the chain. His Father, General Stoick "The Vast" then sent it to the Office of Naval Intelligence or ONI for short for analysis, only for their specialists to be just as baffled as the researchers at Berk were. Nowadays, he uses the signal puzzle as a distraction from his brilliant mind from tinkering with the base main systems. In the past, such a course of action lead to "unforeseen hiccups" with base operations followed by a reprimand from the base commander about him endangering the base. This lead to his current nickname Lieutenant Useless from most of the base personal that was only used not in General Haddock's presence.

Hiccup sighed again at that depressing thought and looked around his complex, his only sanctuary, living quarters, office, and workshop. Across from him on his desk was his computer terminal still displaying the Forerunner code with multiple decipher algorithms running. To the right of his key board were a stack of reports of Forerunner sites and combat reports with Forerunner defense units. On top of the reports was a mug half filled with coffee that was forgotten hours ago and long since turned cold. Hiccup turned towards the door and walked past his drafting station with data tablets scattered on the table and dozens of blue prints hanging on the wall. He walked through the tiny living room to enter his garage that he converted into a workshop. Pausing briefly, he took a deep breath and smiled when the similar smell of machine oil, sweat, and burnt electronic motherboards engulfed his senses. Hiccup grabbed the battered and stained leather work apron that was a gift from Colonel Gobber, his father's best friend and who he viewed as an uncle. Gobber was the only one besides Major Gothi, the Berk's lead medical officer, and Specialist Fishlegs Ingerman, who all treated him with some level of decency. After donning his apron, he strolled past a disassembled Warthog that he liberated from the motor pool after the mechanics deemed it unsalvageable after taking a hit from a Forerunner particle cannon. It took him four months of hunting for parts, but now he almost had it in somewhat working order and is currently the centerpiece of his latest inventions. Since January, he was in the process of modifying the Guss Cannon currently attached to the Warthog to emit an EMP pulse when the rail round hits a target. The EMP component works a little too well to the point that he accidently shut down Berk in a 200 ft radius. He got an ear full from Colonel Spitlout Jorgenson, the lead security officer about making Berk vulnerable to a Forerunner attack.

Pushing the memory aside, Hiccup retrieved his electrical tools and sat down at his workstation and began attempting to recalibrate the EMP regulator. Too engrossed in his work, he failed to realize the low hum being emitted from the regulator that was beginning to raise in pitch and intensity. "Oh Thor!" dropping his tools, Hiccup grabbed a sheet of alloy leaning to his right and placed it between himself and his project with practiced ease. BOOM! The concessive blast knocked Hiccup over singeing the tips of his out of regulation choppy amber hair. Dazed with a constant ringing in his ears, he glanced through the smoke at his workstation that has a new scorched mark. His attention was focused on the regulator that was shooting off sparks of electricity from a fried motherboard that he was working to notice a pair of arms grip him under his armpits and began to drag him away from his workshop. He looked up and his mouth dropped at the sight beholden in front of him. "I knew it, I have died, and this beautiful Valkyrie is carrying me to Valhalla," thought Hiccup. He studied her face beginning with her exquisite blue eyes filled with intelligence followed by her small nose and fair complexion. He couldn't believe how golden blond her hair was with that single braid. Analysis complete, he confirmed this breathtaking warrior maiden was a Valkyrie from the legends of old. The blond Valkyrie moved outside his field of vision and he tried to follow but was impeded by another Valkyrie. This one had short buzzed brown hair and grey-green eyes filled with concern. She had a stronger nose than the first and a strong grip apparently, for she halted his motion with ease and shined a flashlight into his eyes, causing him to have dotted vision temporarily. This Valkyrie turned her head to say something to the blond Valkyrie who then nodded, but his hearing was still impaired. He then felt a puncture in his arm and the last thing he felt was being moved onto a stretcher and passed out.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: Revelation

1353 hours, February 12, 2555 (Military Calendar)/ Omega Delta System, Research Outpost Berk, Planet FP-089.

Astrid and her team strolled out of the rear of the Pelican Dropship into the massive underground main hanger of Berk. Astrid nodded to herself impressed at the sheer size of facility and the coordination of the personal going by their daily tasks. Dodging utility carts, either moving personal or ordinance to one of the many Falcon or Hornet gunships, the Valkyries managed to locate a base layout display. Astrid located the "You Are Here" indicator on the sliece display of the base. "Ok we are here," pointing to the indicator, "sublevel 8, section red. We need to take this staircase to reach the surface, which will lead us to base quarters." The other woman nodding their understanding began to move towards the staircase their commander selected.

The Valkyries exited the surface access point to the underground facility following a sign inscribed with base quarters and an arrow indicating further up the hill. In route to the base quarters an explosion caught the entire squad's attention. They closed ranks with their preferred firearms immediately raised sweeping their zones of fire for possible hostiles. With a hand signal from their commander the Valkyries advanced towards the building expelling smoke from the garage. With her MA5B trained on the garage door, Astrid signaled Heather and Camicazi to flank the entrance and wait for further orders which was executed with fluid efficiency. Once they were in position, she signaled to open the door and together the two Valkyries opened the door, while Astrid and Jenra Heztra cleared the room. Astrid activated the light on her rifle luminating the garage revealing the prone young man in UNSC fatigues without his blouse being covered by a smoldering alloy sheet. "Heztra on me! I found a wounded man here!" ordered Astrid as she dragged the man from the building. Astrid's eyes locked on the man's green eyes and she sensed a deep curiosity and intelligence in those eyes. Combined with his auburn hair, she surprisingly found him cute. The team's medic took over and began diagnosing the man's condition. She checked his pulse on his neck after a few moments, nodded and pulled a mini flashlight from her utility belt and checked the man's eye responses seeing no normal response. "This man has a concussion and is in shock. I need to put him under, so he doesn't potentially harm his spine LT," stated Heztra. "Do it," ordered Astrid. Heztra nodded and retrieved an injector from her field kit and injected the man with a sedative. Once the man stumbled into unconsciousness, Heztra pulled out a neck splint and secured the man's head as Camicazi and Heather brought a stretcher. "On three… one... two… THREE!" shouted Astrid, and in unison the Valkyries lifted the stretcher. "YOU THERE, WHERE IS THE MEDICAL BUILDING!" commanded Astrid as she indicated to one of the first responders approaching the blast sight. The private froze in place as he noticed that the order was directed at him and the lieutenant insignia on Astrid's ODST armor, "Ma'am follow the trail up to the center of the base, hardened structure on the left," responded the private. Astrid nodded her thanks, "DOUBLE TIME VALKYRIEs!" and the fireteam began jogging up the main route of the base.

Once they reached the medical building a team of nurses were apparently expecting them and immediately swapped places with the Valkyries by the direction of a small, elderly women with the major rank insignia on her military fatigues with the name Gothi on her name tap. Heztra, without a need for orders, approached Major Gothi and swiped her patient file on her wrist data pad over to the Major. Major Gothi nodded her thanks and with a shooing gesture, "Lieutenant please have your team and yourself wait outside, so my team has room to work. This young man will be fine, he is just as stubborn as his father. I will give you my report to take to the General when you report in," her voice crooked mechanically. Astrid blinked in surprise at that logic, nodded and faced towards the exit, waving for her team to follow. She looked one last time over her shoulder at the prone man on the hospital bed with a ping of concern sinking into her heart.Astrid exited Berk's medical center after she and the other three Valkyries transported the sedated young man via stretcher to the medical building. She thought to herself that when she arrived here, she was a little worried that this would be a dull assignment being stationed at such a backwater research outpost after her experiences at the Battle of Reach and her first tour on Earth. Now a faint smile reached her lips that this might be an enjoyable assignment after all.

The cold fringed air caused Astrid to shiver from the sudden blast of winter air, breaking her line of thought and noticing the other Valkyries waiting patiently for her orders. "Valkyries! You are dismissed for the rest of the day. Unpack your gear and rest up ladies. Meet me at my quarters at 0900 tomorrow to retrieve your assignments," stated Astrid. In unison, "Yes ma'am," shouted the three women of fireteam Valkyrie and all turned around and headed off to the living quarters. With the departure of the other women, Astrid waited patiently by leaning up against the concrete wall of the building for Major Gothi to finish her work when Astrid noticed two men approached her from her peripheral vision. "Hey babe you looking for a hookup? I can show you some secluded places where I can show you a good time?" smirked the shorter black-haired marine. "Yeah a good time," echoed the taller built marine. Astrid's face burned red with rage as she shut her eyes and clenched her teeth reeling on pure willpower to not activate her sword to perform some on the spot genitalia removal medical procedure. Hearing no response, the short marine oblivious to the rage radiating from Astrid, took that as an invitation and approached her. With an over confident smile, the short marine put his hand on her hip. "Hey sweet cheeks you hear me?" "Yes, I did you swine," interrupted Astrid. "Now remove your hand from my hip if you want to live," Astrid coldly whispered, seeped with venomous rage. Taken aback by the hostile reply, his gaze meets Astrid's and saw immediate danger in those cold, calculating eyes and froze in fear. Sensing the drastic change in the atmosphere, the other marine advanced on Astrid who spring into action. Astrid used the wall as leverage as she gripped the short marine's wrist and twisted his arm into a very painful wrestling maneuver, pinning the marine to the wall causing him to yelp in surprise. During the same movement, Astrid maximized the inertia of the action and performed a well-executed kick right to the taller marine's groin. The marine's yelp raised a higher octave and dropped to the ground cuddling his groin protectively. With a metallic scraping sound, Astrid drew her knife and placed the blade across the marine's neck. The perfectly polished metal reflected the marine's wide eyes full of fear back at him. "Now you listen to me…" she paused, looked down at his rank insignia and continued, "Sargent Jorgeson. My name is Lieutenant Hofferson or ma'am, not babe or sweet cheeks. You will give me the respect my rank gives me. Furthermore, if I find you or your goons preying on any of my subordinates I will personal remove your cock then hang you by your entrails. This is your only warning. Do...I... make...myself...clear?" whispered Astrid in his ear. "Ye-ye-yes ma'am!" shuddered Sargent Jorgeson. "Good, now get out of my sight before I file charges of assaulting an officer!" shouted Astrid at the fleeing marines.

Astrid took a deep breath to calm her anger and renewed her posture. "That was the most entertainment I have witnessed in a while Lieutenant Hofferson. Good method in teaching dimwitted men on how to treat women with respect and not as property," the monotone robotic voice nonchalantly said behind her. Startled, Astrid jumped 180 degrees to see Major Gothi standing there slipping from a mug with an unamused expression on her face with a data pad in her left hand. "MA'AM! I am sorry that you ha-," Major Gothi interrupted Astrid's apology by putting the data pad into her hands and looked into Astrid's eyes with a smile on her face and gently grasped her arm. "Lieutenant, you have nothing to apologize about, truth be told, I wish I had popcorn to snack on while I watched you pound some etiquette into young Snotlout. But then I would have missed the show," shrugged Major Gothi. At this Astrid began to laugh. Major Gothi smiled and patted Astrid's arm, "Now off you go lass, don't want to have the General wait any longer." With a smile and a nod, Astrid saluted the Major who returned the salute and began making her way up the hill to the command bunker.

After passing multiple defensive batteries manned by fireteams of marines, she approached the main entrance to the bunker which was flanked by two MP marines. Seeing her lieutenant insignia, they both saluted which Astrid mirrored. The short female MP took a step forward, "Ma'am, please scan your common access card over this data pad," sternly stated the female MP. Astrid nodded and took out her CAC and scanned it across the data pad. An image of Astrid appeared on the screen with a hand scanner app showing up next to her picture. "Now please confirm your identity by scanning your hand," continued the MP. Astrid did and a moment later the background of her picture lit up green. "Welcome to Berk Command Bunker Lieutenant Hofferson, the General is expecting you," said the second MP. Astrid nodded her thanks as the female MP nodded in the direction of a security camera and a double set of blast doors began to open. Astrid walked in and the blast doors closed behind her. The control center was a beehive of activity with junior officers overseeing their enlisted subordinates perform their various tasks, their eyes glued to their monitor screens. The center of the room had 3D graphic representation of the island they were on and of other sectors of interest that was being studied by a group of staff officers. Astrid walked past all of them towards the rear most large office at the back of the hall. Once in earshot of the office she paused as she heard voices, "aye, I know the attacks have been getting more complex as the Forerunner bastards learn how to combat our battle tactics Spitlout..." Astrid posted herself against the wall and stood at parade rest as she waited for the General to finish his meeting, "That's why I am approving the mission to recon in force sectors 26-30 when the weather clears," stated the deep booming male voice. "Sir, drones sent to recon those sectors never come back and units are forced to withdraw due to heavy resistance!" exclaimed a younger male voice. "Aye, I am well aware of the dangers that we will be facing Agent Eric, your boss in ONI won't continue funding this outpost forever without results," boomed the deep male voice. "General you said "we", you can't mean that you will be leading this mission personally, I strongly recommend against this course of action!" shouted a heavily accented male voice. "Duly noted Spitlout, as leader I can't send good soldiers to die if I am not willing to take the same risk. You know this brother, an officer protects his own," calmly answered Stoick. "I do, but doesn't mean I have to like it," replied Spitlout. "I will pack extra undies," a heavy Scottish-accented man said. "No Gobber, my friend. You will hold down the fort and run some drills to train the replacements in fighting the Forerunner combat units. Also, this would be a prime opportunity to test the capabilities of the new ODST fireteam that arrived earlier today. I expect a full report once we return from the recon mission," stated Stoick. "It will be on your desk ready once you return Stoick," answered Gobber. "We will discuss the mission further tomorrow at 0900, dismissed," ordered Stoick.

Astrid snapped to the position of attention and greeted, "Good afternoon gentlemen," as the officers passed by. "Good afternoon lieutenant," replied the two officers. Astrid notice that the first officer, who had black hair and the beginnings of a five o'clock shadow, was glaring at her as he walked past her. The other Colonel had a right arm and left leg prosthetic to go with his large muscular build and long braided mustache. Both were in UNSC combat fatigues, while the last man was wearing black fatigues with no unit or rank insignia screaming that he worked for ONI. The ONI man nodded at her as he past her. "You may enter Lieutenant," Stoick said politely. Astrid squared her corners as she entered the office and centered herself on the giant oak desk and performed the perfect saluted. "Lieutenant Astrid Hofferson and Fireteam Valkyrie reports as ordered sir!" Astrid said professionally. General Haddock returned the salute and with a hand gesture, "at ease lieutenant, please take a seat", as he indicated one of the two chairs that flanked the side of the desk that Astrid was on. She gracefully sat down in the right chair keeping her posture professional and studied the General's features. The General stood an impressive almost 7ft cladded in olive green marine combat armor with green eyes and a red massive beard that was braided. His green eyes were familiar, but she couldn't recall from where. "It is a pleasure meeting you Lieutenant. I served with your parents during the war and consider them to be close friends. You have my condolences for your loss," General Haddock said with sadness in his eyes. "Thank you, sir, many families lost loved ones," replied Astrid. "Aye, we all did," he said as he turned his wedding band on his right hand subconsciously. Distracting himself from unpleasant memories, he swiped his giant hands over the data pad on his desk. "Impressive record Lieutenant for such a short service: two purple hearts, Reach Campaign ribbon, Earth Campaign ribbon, Distinguished Service Cross, and Navy Cross. Hahaha! I see you and I are cut from the same cloth!" As he indicated to a massive double-bladed battle axe hanging on the far wall. Astrid smiled as she recalled her own battle axe which is smaller but just as lethal as the massive weapon by the far wall. "Yes sir, my axe and sword," she padded the energy sword handle on her hip, "never run out of ammo on the battlefield. "Hahaha! True enough Lieutenant, Hingheads are never prepared for when a human charges them with good steel!" Bellowed the General. With a fatherly smile on his face, "Lasse, with confidence, I can say that your parents would be proud of the achievements you have accomplished, as well as the officer and young woman you have become." Astrid filled with pride as she fought to keep her posture and fight back the tears that threatened to spill over at the General's words.

"Sir, I have a report from Major Gothi involving the explosion earlier today that she requested I give to you." General Haddock regained his composure and raised an eyebrow as Astrid hands over the data pad that Major Gothi given her earlier. Stoick analyzed the report and took a deep sigh as he rubbed his brow with his right hand. "A thank you is in order for you and your fireteam's quick action, so thank you Lieutenant." "For what sir? I was just doing my job," replied Astrid confused. With sadness in his voice, "the man you saved was Lieutenant Haddock, my son." Astrid's eyes widen at the revelation as all the pieces clicked together and recalled that both the man and the General had the same green eyes. Surprised at the revelation, Astrid almost missed her assignment, "Lieutenant, you and your fireteam will be assigned to the quick reaction force under Colonel Jorgenson's command," instructed General Haddock. Astrid did a double take at the name of the colonel, "Sir, does Colonel Jorgenson by any chance... have a son who's a Sargent?" enquired Astrid. "In fact, he does Lieutenant. May I ask why you have such an oddly specific question?" General Haddock asked inquisitively. "I may have...ran into him...and lost my temper," Astrid explained nervously. After a period of silence, General Haddock completely seeing through Astrid's ruse lost his bearings and with a booming laughter that shook his desk, "hahaha, I hope you taught my nephew a lesson on respect without maiming him, hahaha!" Astrid exhaling the breath she realized was holding, "no sir, scared the shit out of him though sir. Will that be all, sir?" "Hahaha…" taking a deep breath, "that explains why Spitlout was in a sourer mood earlier, you will fit in quite nicely here Lieutenant and yes that will be all. You are dismissed," General Haddock acknowledged. Astrid raised from her seat to the position of attention and gave a crisp salute, "Good afternoon General." "Good afternoon Lieutenant," replied General Haddock returning her salute. Astrid performed an about face and exited the office with a smile on her face, knowing that even with the brief encounter with the General, he had her unflinching loyalty and would follow him to the edge of the galaxy if necessary.

###

0540 hours, February 13, 2555 (Military Calendar)/ Omega Delta System, Research Outpost Berk, Planet FP-089.

Hiccup clenched his eyes shut in pain as his mind was flooded with images of the regulator overloading and of the beautiful Valkyries carrying him to Valhalla. Especially one blond Valkyrie in particular. Hiccup could hear voices in the room but couldn't make out who it was since he was still affected by the remains of the sedative in his system. He opened his eyes as bright overhead lights continue to overwhelm his irises. Blinking, his vision improved to see Colonel Gobber and Major Gothi whispering to each other on the far side of his bed. In a sarcastic tone, "If this is Valhalla, I would like a refund please," deadpanned Hiccup. Hearing him, both officers cease what they were discussing and turned to face him. Smiling, "you gave it your best shot lad, but you are too stubborn to die. It also helped that a fire team of ODSTs fresh from arriving by dropship, were passing your place when your project accidentally exploded to pull your sorry arse to safety." explained Gobber. Major Gothi nodded in agreement, "Lieutenant that was quick thinking at shielding yourself from the blast. Luckily, you are only suffering from a minor concussion. I would like to keep you under watch for the next 24 hours so we can change the ice packs strapped to your head to minimize the swelling," instructed the monotone Gothi. "Great, this means light duty for the next few days, correct Major? Because if so, please kill me now so that I won't have the excruciating slow death of dying from boredom." Major Gothi just smiled at Hiccup and patted his arm, "you know the drill Lieutenant, you won't be if you were more careful with your projects..." She paused dramatically, her smile turning mischievous, "or you could have a particular... Valkyrie Warrior Goddess keep an eye on you while you work," she teased. Hiccup tensed as his face turn the same shade of red as his auburn hair, "wh-wh-what are you talking about Major?" Hiccup replied attempting to be stoic realizing that the only way for the Major to know is if he talked in his sleep. "Now, now Major stop torturing the lad! Off you go and attend to your other patients," said Gobber with a shooing gesture. The machinal laughter of the elderly medical doctor grew faint as she walked down the hall. "Gobber, I am trying to make my mark and contribute to the mission, so I will no longer be _Lieutenant Useless. _I need to join the fight!" argued Hiccup. "You've made your mark alright lad, all in the wrong places! If you want to get out there and fight, you need to stop with all of... this!" pointing to Hiccup. "You just pointed to all of me," deadpanned Hiccup. "Yes, that's it, stop being all of you," argued Gobber. "Ooohhh," responded Hiccup with a sarcastic understanding. "Oooohhh yes," countered Gobber. "You are playing a dangerous game here, containing all of this raw potential. There will be consequences!" claimed Hiccup. "I will take my chances," deadpanned Gobber. "Drink… water… now," ordered Gobber as he shoved a glass full of water into Hiccup's hands. Hiccup was about to respond but was interrupted when the air raid alarm went off. The screeching sound easily recognized signaling the incoming assault by the Forerunner offensive units the Prometheans.

The base intercom broadcasting, "incoming Promethean attack, eta 5 minutes, all defensive fire teams to your positions! This is not a drill! I say again, this is not a drill!" Gobber locked eyes with Hiccup knowing what Hiccup was thinking and started to shake his head. "Stay… put… you know what I mean!" Gobber commanded sternly as he backed up to the doorway, turned and began running down the hall. Seeing his chance, Hiccup removed the medical sensors taped to his chest and the IV needle embedded in his arm. Once completed, he opened a storage bin revealing his boots, fatigues, and standard issued combat armor. He quickly slipped out of his hospital gown and put on his uniform. By the time he finished, he could hear that the battle was in full swing. Rushing down the main corridor, a scream of alarm was heard off to his left down a branching hallway. He slid to a halt at the corner of the intersection and peered around the corner to see the humanoid Promethean armiger bearing a light rifle exchange fire with two MP marines. Hiccup pulled his head back behind cover in the nick of time as 5.56 armor piercing rounds struck the wall. Hiccup scanned the immediate area for a weapon to arm himself with. His eyes darted over to an emergency case attached to the wall. He peered once more around the corner just in time to witness the armiger strike one of the MPs in the shoulder with a particle bolt, losing sight of the marine as he fell behind a nurse station desk. Throwing caution to the wind, Hiccup abandoned the protection of the cover and dashed over to the emergency case, forcing the covering off and revealing a fire extinguisher inside. Desperately he grabbed the improvised weapon upside down, gripping it like a baseball bat and rushed the armiger. Sensing Hiccup's assault, the armiger dematerialized in a brilliant display of reddish orange light, dodging Hiccup's crude swing. A second later, the armiger reappeared a few meters away from Hiccup, facing him with his rifle leveled at his chest. Off balanced from the swing, Hiccup stare hopelessly into the red metallic eyes of the armiger. Hiccup closed his eyes waiting for the particle bolt that would surely end his life. The crack of a M90 shotgun followed by an angry mechanical voice, "get out of my hospital you cranker!" shattered Hiccup's tranquility and opened his eyes to watch as the armiger crumble to the floor disintegrating as it went. The shrinking form of the armiger revealed Major Gothi bearing the M90 shotgun, it's barrel still smoking. Out of breath, Hiccup nodded his appreciation at the Major for saving his life, who mirrored the nod as she pumped another shell into the receiver.

With the threat neutralized, Hiccup dropped his improvised weapon and rushed down the hall towards the wounded marine grabbing a canister of medical biofoam as he went. Upon arriving, the other marine was kneeling beside his wounded comrade applying a blood-soaked field dressing with both hands to his counterpart's wounded shoulder. "Remove the dressing soldier," Hiccup ordered indicating the canister he was holding. The soldier nodding his understanding and removed the dressing, allowing the wound to pulse blood once more. Without hesitation, Hiccup opened the canister and sprayed biofoam into the wound sanitizing and clogging the entry. "What is your name soldier?" enquired Hiccup. "Private Draken sir," replied the pale face male marine. With a smile, "well Private you are going to be just fine, Doc is going to fix you right up in a moment. Mind if I borrow your MA5B and spare magazines?" asked Hiccup. Private Draken nodded and with his good arm unbuckled the bandolier from his vest and hand them over to Hiccup. "LT, mind handing me my sidearm sir? It's a little awkward now for me to unholster it," chuckled Private Draken. With a nod Hiccup retrieved Draken's M6 chambering a round then placed the loaded sidearm into Draken's good hand. Securing the ammo to his armor and sliding a fresh magazine into the receiver, Hiccup left the two marines and Major Gothi behind determined to make his mark in this battle.

Berk was in utter chaos. The dark early morning sky was sprinkled with tracer fire and whistling missiles from the dozens of fortified defensive fighting positions engaged with the hovering Promethean gunships that retaliated with zapping particle bolts. Marine fireteams unleashing lead and other heavy ordinance upon the materializing Promethean armigers and the dreaded warrior knights that penetrated Berk's perimeter defenses. Hiccup spotted his tormentor, Sargent Snotlout Jorgenson at the gate to the inner compound of Berk wielding his personal M739 light machine gun, assisting two other fireteams in fending off a wave of advancing dog like Promethean crawlers. Hiccup could hear the crazed chant "Snotlout Snotlout oy oy oy!" from across the base. The twins, Specialists Ruffnut and Tuffnut Thorston, the base pranksters and explosive experts, launch a salvo of missiles from their M41 SPNKR rocket launchers. The four missiles collided with four gunships, each erupting into a blossom of fire and molten debris. The explosions lighting up their faces revealed the pure joy on their faces, waving their now depleted launchers in the air at the destruction they caused as they clashed their combat helmets against each other. Specialist Fishlegs Ingerman, the base leading Forerunner expert, passed him with a wounded marine draped over each of his shoulders with ease as if he was carrying sacks of flour. "Morning LT," nonchalantly greeted Fishlegs. Hiccup simply nodded as an explosion illuminated an ODST fireteam on the opposite side of the clearing, which became the immediate focal point of his attention. Leading the fireteam was the blond Valkyrie from his dream and once more his month dropped in amazement. Even from this distance, his analytical eyes studying each combat maneuver she performed with the grace of a warrior goddess. Dispatching armigers left and right, a gleaming battleax was gripped in her hands. Her fireteam covered her flanks with precision shots which annihilated any threat that dared threaten their commander.

Hiccup continued to study the Valkyrie as if he was in a trance completely oblivious to the battle that was commencing around him. "I must be dreaming. I must find out who she is," Hiccup stated to no one in particular. A massive bear like hand gripped his shoulder spinning him around, ending his trance. Tensed, Hiccup tilted his head back, past the mountain red braided beard to see his father's eyes. "What are you do- never mind, get back inside Lieutenant," bellowed General Haddock. Marines began to crowd around their General, their hope and morale raising at the sight of a calm Stoick, analyzing the situation. Hiccup took this opportunity to disappear in the crowd and began making his way up the main path to a higher vantage point. "Incoming! Everyone get down!" Hiccup turned around to spot a marine pointing in the sky as a incineration round was bearing down on them. Everyone dove to the ground at the incoming particle blast, but General Haddock stood defiantly to the attack. The round stuck a now abandoned warthog, causing the ammunition and fuel to ignite, flipping the burning vehicle on its back. A piece of the burning wreckage landed on Stoick's armor pauldron, who nonchalantly brushed it aside. "Report," he ordered to an approaching grizzly Captain with a gash above his left eye. "General, we are losing the lower defenses to a pack of crawlers supported by a dozen Knight Lancers and a Knight Commander," reported the Captain. "Any unidentified flying tactical support?" enquired the General. "No sir." "Good, Fireteams A-G hold the line here…" he paused and wandered over to the wrecked warthog and braced his foot against the base of the chaingun stand. With the additional leverage, he gripped the chaingun with both hands, and pulled. The metal keeping the weapon in placed weakened by the heat, groaned in protest before succumbing to his strength. Bearing his new weapon, "everyone else with me! We will take back the lower defenses and stage our counter attack there!" He spearheaded the assault down the main route, his chaingun making short work of crawlers as a hundred marines shooting and shouting their war cries followed in their General's wake. Hiccup watched his father inspire his men and led the counter attack thinking dryly to himself, only if he could command such loyalty and respect from others. With renewed determination, he advanced further up the hill.

Hiccup turned the bend of the main route with the MA5B assault rifle scanning for threats. Seeing none as this sector, Berk was quiet due to the main engagement being at the bottom of the island. He jogged towards a Gauss Warthog that collided with a cargo container. The driver sprawled out over the steering wheel and the gunner in a lump of limbs at the bottom of the gunner station both unmoving. Hiccup checked both men for a pulse and his expression hardened as he detected none. With the utmost respect in the current situation, he removed both dead marines from the vehicle and laid them side by side to be located later by search and recovery teams after the battle. Hiccup jumped in the driver's seat and was relieved that the vehicle was still operational. He shifted the gear to reverse and backed up from the crate, then shifted the gear back to the forward position and drove to an overlook. Hiccup slammed on the brakes as he approached the ledge, put the warthog in park, then proceed to leap from the driver's seat to the gunner station to man the gauss cannon. His eyes narrowed as he searched the sky, "give me something to shoot at," he whispered to himself. To his disappointment, the sky was clear of viable targets. Then an eerie whistling sound began to rise in pitch. At peak intensity, an indigo purple blast ripped through the morning sky silencing one of the defensive positions below. To his bewilderment, Hiccup concluded that this was one of the elusive unidentified flying tactical assets that the Forerunners deployed against Berk. The whistling began once more, Hiccup's eyes darted back and forth frantically for a target. Another indigo blast erupted from what seemed out of nowhere, silencing another position. Hiccup's keen eyes locked on the faintest outline of a supersonic body. Completing some flash equations in his mind, his arms instinctively turned the cannon, clenching his eyes shut at the rapid gush of wind, and squeezed the trigger.

The cannon flashed a brilliant blue as the electromagnetic coils in the gauss cannon pulsed with current, accelerated the round to high speeds. The round soared through the air then intercepted the flying target. A primal screech of pain reached Hiccup's ears, which grew fainter in the direction of the far side of the island. "I hit it? I hit it!" announced Hiccup, pumping his fists in the air at his achievement. "Did anyone see that?" challenged Hiccup as he turned around to find no one in the immediate area. A bone chilling screech answered him and turned in time to witness in horror a Promethean Knight Battlewagon descend on his position. "No one but you," he said in a defeated tone. Hiccup fell off the warthog as the Knight landed on the hood of the vehicle crushing the roll cage and with a flick of its wrist chopped the gauss cannon in half with its particle arm blades. The set of large red spiky crystals on its back pulsated as it screeched a challenge at the prone figure on the ground. Hiccup wishing, he had to his father, brought his rifle to bare at the knight. The Knight fired a spread of particle bolts that struck Hiccup's rifle, knocking it from his grasp. Now weaponless, Hiccup ran some quick scenarios in his head not liking one, desperately stood up and sprinted for his life, screaming.

Hiccup's heart was pounding with the sudden spike of adrenaline as his mind searched frantically for an avenue of survival. Hiccup heard the discharge of another salvo of bolts and leaped to the right as the particle bolts passed harmless through the open space he recently vacated. Hiccup spotted a communication rely tower only a dozen paces away and rushed towards it. He dashed around the tower, putting the tower between himself and the Knight in the nick of time as a rapid series of bolts clashed into the tower. With his back against the tower, Hiccup glanced around the right side attempting to locate the Knight and was filled with overwhelming fear at not seeing the Knight there. He immediately turned left knowing where the Knight went, hating himself when he was correct. The Knight stood there towering over him, posed to impale him with its arm blade and knew he was out of options with his cursed luck finally at an end.

The blade stopped in mid swing as a massive armored warrior holding a battle axe tackled the Knight, forcing distance between the Knight and Hiccup. Hiccup could only hear in amazement, for the tower blocked his view of his father engaging the Knight. He heard the Knight screech a challenge at his father followed by, "aye, you all out now. aaahhhh!" The clash of his father's axe striking the Knight repeatedly, echoed off the surrounding buildings. Something metallic clattered to the ground, which was followed by another screech and the distinct sound of a Forerunner portal opening then closing. The crisscrossing steel truss of the tower groaned as the superheated metal weakened from the repeated bolt strike. The supports buckled from the punishment and the tower fell with a clash. The curved satellite dish snapped at the joint and rolled off the cliff. Hiccup's teeth and shoulders clenched tighter together each time a, "look out!" or "aaahhhh!" pierced the dawn sky as the dish descended further down the hill. Stoick now was standing in front of him and he could sense the anger and disappointment just by his stance after much experience. "Hey dad," he mumbled in a nervous tone. Knowing what's going to happen next, Hiccup attempted to deflect his incoming father's wrath, "well I shot down an UFTS," Stoick grabbed Hiccup's shoulder and began dragging him away from the crowd of base personal. "It's not liked the last few times General! I hit it with the gauss cannon, and it crashed just beyond Raven's Point. We need to-, ``''Enough!" interrupted Stoick. "Why can't you follow the simplest orders Lieutenant? Every time you engage the enemy disaster follows! Can't you see I have bigger problems right now? The Prometheans are getting smarter and I have a battalion to run," stated Stoick. "You know me General, whenever we are attacked, I have to pick up a weapon and fight back," countered Hiccup. Shaking his head in a softer tone, "you are many things Lieutenant, but a combat officer is not one of them. Now someone make sure he gets back to his quarters. I have his mess to clean up," commanded Stoick.

Colonel Gobber walked up behind Hiccup and smacked him across the back of his head making him flinch. As the two shuffled towards the living quarters, they had to pass his tormentors. "Hahaha, quite the performance," laughed the male twin. "I have never seen anyone mess up that badly, that helped Lieutenant Useless," sneered Snotlout. Gobber grabbed Snotlout's face and knocked him to the ground, "that's enough Sargent, get back to your duty," ordered Gobber. Hiccup's head dipped down in humiliation and his gaze took sight of a fireteam of female ODSTs. Three of them were not paying much attention to him as they leaned against supply crates, relaxing after the battle or inspecting their gear. The fourth one was sitting on top of the crate, running a sharpening stone along the blade. Her ocean blue eyes were staring into his emerald green eyes, studying him with an expression of curiosity instead of disgust. Great first impression, how am I going to talk to her now? Hiccup thought miserably. Hiccup broke his eye contact with her only to notice a man facing away from him in the alley between two buildings. Hiccup strained his eyes to obtain more detain and found that the man was in black fatigues with no unit insignia. He gasped in shock as he recognized Agent Eric their ONI liaison, who seemed to be in a conversation with someone on his wrist communication device. "...Send in a recovery team, no witnesses," stated Eric before tapping his wrist and vanishing around the corner. That statement only puzzled him further, why would ONI be conducting missions behind his father's back? Or is Agent Eric working with his father? What could ONI be doing that requires no witnesses? Too many unanswered questions and I hate unanswered questions he thought bitterly to himself.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Movement in the Shadows

0630 hours, February 13, 2555 (Military Calendar)/ Omega Delta System, Research Outpost Berk, Planet FP-089.

Hiccup's mind was flooded with questions after overhearing Agent Eric in the alleyway to the point that his body was on autopilot moving towards his quarters. The sight of his one-story concrete home ended the endless stream of questions occupying his head. Only for the painful reality of his relationship with his only surviving family to surface once more.

"Gobber he doesn't listen to me," Hiccup sadly began, "I really did shoot down that UFTS."

"Runs in the family," replied Gobber.

Completely oblivious to Gobber's remark Hiccup continued, "when he does, it is with this disappointed squall on his face as if someone skipped all the meat on his sandwich."

Sarcastically lowering his voice, "Excuse me pardon me, I am afraid you brought me the wrong offspring. I ordered a son with military discipline and extra glory on the side! This here… this here is a failure of an officer."

"Now you are thinking of this all wrong. It is not how you execute your role as an officer, it is what's inside he can't stand," reasoned Gobber.

"Thank you for summing all that up," deadpanned Hiccup.

"Look, the point is stop being something you are not," continued Gobber.

"I just want to help complete the mission," replied Hiccup sadly as he passed through the doorway threshold and saluted Gobber.

"Good morning Gobber," and closed the door.

Hiccup braced himself against the steel door and exhaled a deep sigh. Today was starting out great, Hiccup thought bitterly. And to make it worse he recognized the armor the blond warrior goddess wore, ODST; the best of the best in the marine corp. How was he going to impress her to acknowledge his existence? Especially after his performance earlier this morning? The Gods really do hate me, Hiccup concluded. Loathed by the majority of the base personnel, can never seem to make the right decisions in combat, the weather sucked all the time, and almost killed on a weekly basis by Forerunner death machines. With this realization accepting these events as part of another day, Hiccup sighed again and forced himself off the door to begin his morning routine. Hiccup took off his muddy combat boots in the foyer and strolled into his room to retrieve a fresh pair of fatigues before entering the spartan bathroom to take a shower. The hot water washed the grime off his body from the morning raid was one small luxury on such a backwater, hostile research outpost. It was Valhalla on his muscular, bruised body.

Once finished and dried off, Hiccup, dawned in clean fatigues, walked into the tiny kitchen with the main counter overlooking the living room. He activated a hologram projector that he installed himself when he was first stationed at Berk so he could work and cook at the same time. The left side of the projection showed the latest intelligence reports from reconnaissance missions earlier in the week, while the right showed the ongoing decryption of the Forerunner signal that has been running since yesterday. Hiccup looked at the display disappointingly as the status icon still flashed processing. While in deep thought on which variables he missed in his initial analysis, he gathered the ingredients for an omelet and started a pot of coffee. During his academic years, before his father pulled some strings to put him through Officer Training School on Earth. He had to learn how to take care of himself and one of the skills he learned was how to cook. He learned at an earlier age since his mother, the renowned late Commander Valka Haddock of the UNSC Destroyer Cloud Jumper disappeared 13 years ago and was presumed lost with all hands. His workaholic father buried his grief in his work and was rarely home. Now Hiccup expertly diced the peppers, tomatoes, and mushrooms with speed and precision as butter melted in the pan. He whisked a few eggs with milk and poured the mixture into the pan. The coffee pot binged, and Hiccup poured the steaming contents into a UNSC mug with cream and sugar. By this time, the eggs were nearly ready and he added sharp cheddar and the diced filling onto half of the cooked egg before folding the other half over. Hiccup took a sip of the bitter coffee as his display beeped at him repeatedly, catching him by surprise and causing the coffee to go down the wrong pipe. Hiccup saved his coffee by placing the mug on the counter and focused his attention on the display.  
His analytical eyes darted back and forth over the data displayed and a huge grin formed on his face at this latest development.

"Haha, progress!" he gleefully shouted.

His grin slowly disappeared as his mind went into overdrive studying the new data. The display on the left shows several marine helmet camera footage that were paused and trained on Forerunner hieroglyphs on the walls of a Forerunner site 50 klicks south of Berk. These symbols were outlined by rectangles with a line connecting it to a reciprocal rectangle outlining the corresponding symbols in the Forerunner code. There were multiple references with the Forerunner hieroglyphs of Reclaimer and the Mantel, but also new symbols that he and the UNSC translation database did not recognize. Strangely though these new symbols were somehow familiar. Hiccup's focus was interrupted by the smell of burnt eggs. His eyes widened in realization of the source and scrambled to salvage his breakfast. Hiccup quickly grabbed a plate and slid the omelet from the pan. He set the plate down on the counter and copied his findings into an email for his friend, Fishlegs, with a request to investigate the new Forerunner symbols. Once sent, Hiccup wolfed down his breakfast while trying his best to ignore the burnt taste of eggs in his mouth by gulping down the remnants of his coffee. He immediately rushed into his room and began applying his marine issued armor now. His chest piece fell into place with multiple pockets to secure ammo magazines, energy bars, and other equipment that needed to be in easy reach. Shoulder pauldrons were attached next, followed by elbow and wrist pads with a tech pad, that he personally installed to the interior face of the armor to his body. All he needed to do was rotate his wrist to gain access to the data pad without compromising the integrity of the heat resistive armor. The rest of his armor quickly followed with upper thigh, knee, and shin armor plates. Hiccup now fully suited in his armor, grabbed a rucksack and filled it to the brim with survival items including MREs, water canteens, biofoam, and other essentials. Ready to start his next task, Hiccup exited through the rear exit to avoid the prying eyes of others to begin his mission to find that UFTS that he swore that he shot down.

By sticking to the shadows created by the still early sun, Hiccup advanced unnoticed to the outer perimeter of the base. Along the way, Hiccup stopped briefly at a weapon locker and imputed his officer code to unlock the security seal. The lock accepted his code and slid open revealing the UNSC lethal hardware. Hiccup secured a M20 Submachine Gun and a M6 sidearm with a handful of magazines for each. After relocking the locker and approaching the perimeter fence, Hiccup activated his Tac Pad and began the incursion software subroutine that he invented himself that would make ONI spook's mouth water. With a mischievous smile, Hiccup saw the icon flash green as the program found the backdoor, he installed a few months ago into the security network. Col Jorgensen would be pissed if he found out about the existence of the program Hiccup thought gleefully as if he would ever find out smirked Hiccup. Casting the joyful thought aside, Hiccup put the perimeter cameras and motion sensors on a loop and rushed to the fence. Hiccup pulled out a plasma torch from his bag and swiftly severed the links to the post. The flexible chain link mesh yielded enough for Hiccup to push his rucksack and himself through without any resistance. On the other side, Hiccup forced the fence back into place to throw off suspicion from the foot patrols and dashed into the forest for concealment. Once 200 meters in the forest safely away from the base perimeter security systems, Hiccup began competing trajectory calculations of the UFTS on his tac pad. After ten minutes, a waypoint appeared on his visor display and with a satisfied smile Hiccup began his search south. How hard could it be to find one downed UFTS speculated Hiccup?

"Aaaauuuggggg!" Hiccup grunted, as he futuristically scribbled on his tac pad display.

For Thor's sake he thought cynically, eight long, hard hours of hiking rough terrain with nothing to show for it. To reach the first waypoint the journey took just over an hour followed by seven to reach his current location using his navigation training and standard UNSC grid search protocol. "Great, some marines lose their pocketknives in the bog while out on patrol, but I lose an entire UFTS during a RAID! "mumbled Hiccup with his voice rising in pitch to vent his frustration. In anger, Hiccup used his left hand to smack a low hanging branch out of his way, while maintaining hold of his M20 with his right. With vengeance, the branch swung back to its original position as the unaware Hiccup was passing that threshold and stepping on a large rock. The branch smacked into his helmet and with a thud Hiccup landed hard, ungraciously on his back.

"Why does the universe love me?" Hiccup asked sarcastically to the sky.

He shook his head to clear his fuzzy vision from the collision and immediately froze as his peripheral vision spotted an unnatural object lying prone on the ground to his left.  
His training automatically switched on as he slowly raised with the M20 scanning all sectors of fire for hostiles. With his heart pounding and eyes darting back and forth searching his surroundings, Hiccup approached the prone object and on closer inspection and horror it was the mutilated remains of a SPEC OPs operative. Examining the corpse, the operative's chest was a smoldering crater created by an energy weapon far more devastating than the hard-light rounds utilized by the Prometheans. Hiccup gagged as he fought to maintain his lunch from the smell of burnt, ionized human flesh. Regaining his composure, Hiccup analyzed his surroundings in greater detail revealing the state of the tree that smacked him back into reality. Hiccup's mouth gaped in surprise at the poor state of the tree and how he missed such damage. The tree was split down the upper half of the trunk as if something large collided with it. Hiccup easily found the point of impact and followed the direction of travel on the other side of the hill. The lead brought Hiccup to the crest of the hill he was on and divulged a deep trench that was created by a falling object.

Hiccup half slid; half walked down the trench to a boulder the size of a warthog. He began to climb over using both hands to haul himself over the boulder. At the apex, Hiccup peered over the top and scanned the clearing. Sunlight pierced through the canopy of the forest revealing the black mound in the center with the light rays reflecting off its surface. Immediately, Hiccup ducked back into safety behind the boulder. His heart rate spiked as adrenaline flooded his system expecting hard light rounds to start hitting the boulder. After a few fear intensive breaths and much to his surprise, the harmony of the forest was not interrupted with gun fire. Tempting fate, he glanced over the top of the boulder once more to study the black mound. Since his initial observation, the mound did not move, and no hostile elements had tried to kill him. This sparked inside of him renewed courage as Hiccup grit his teeth and hauled himself over his safe haven. Landing with a soft thud, he brought his M20 SMG to bear as he scanned the clearing, his body tense in preparation to dodge incoming fire. His adrenaline-fueled mind went into overdrive analyzing the input data from his senses. The clearing smelled of death and ozone, reminding him of human bodies slaughtered by Covenant plasma weapons. He spotted five more Spec Ops corpses on the fringes of the clearing with wounds ranging from blasted open chest cavities to mangled bodies as if hit by a warthog.

Hiccup trained his M20 on the mound as he approached cautiously, and his mouth dropped in amazement on his closer inspection.

"Oh, my Thor! This is what a UFTS looks like up close!" marveled Hiccup as he activated his mission recorder for future review.

A half dozen paces away from the dark mound, more details were revealed. The mound, a jet-black creature around eight meters in length, two sets of wings with one set massive compared to the other, quadruped, and tangled in a grey carbon-based netting that immobilized it before its death. Hiccup was torn between happiness and guilt at that fact. Part of him was happy that this creature is no longer killing his brothers and sisters in arms, but the other part mourned for the loss of such a magnificent creature.

As he planted his foot on the shoulder of the creature, "I Lieutenant Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III am the first to docu-, oh Thor" fumbled Hiccup as the creature shoved him off with an annoyed growl.

Alarm bells rang in Hiccup's ears as he landed with a thud again with his brain acknowledging the fact that the "dead" creature shoved him and growled, both indications that this extremely hostile creature is very very much alive.

Once again, his training kicked in again as he executed a roll away from the tangled creature into a crouch with the M20 fixed on the creature, his finger hovering over the trigger. He approached once more to get a closer look at the creature for weakness in its scale like armor.

"I am going to cut out your heart and present it to my father. I am a marine. I AM A UNSC MARINE!" steeled Hiccup.

Upon seeing where the neck meets the main body, he braced the stock of the M20 into his shoulder to prepare to fire with the barrel trained at the hopeful weakness. His eyes collided with the creature's own emerald, eyes then the creature closed its eyes and let out a moan of pure anguish and lowered its head to the ground preparing for death.

Some part of him prevented him from squeezing the trigger and he let go of the M20 to hang from his chest plate.

Defeated, Hiccup turned away to begin his trek back to base, "I did this," he whispered.

Then his brain started forming questions again. Who were those spec ops operatives? Why are they not on the base roster? Who sent them? Was it Agent Eric? "That makes logical sense," stated his analytical brain. "Agent Eric contacted someone after we shot down the UFTS and now that UFTS is tangled in a net with a team of spec op operatives slaughter in the intermediate area," continued his brain. "But why no witnesses?" questioned Hiccup. "Because ONI will be ONI," answered his brain. "But why keep this off the books when this entire expedition is funded by ONI?" countered Hiccup. "Good point," relented his brain. "Are you going to leave that creature for the nefarious black ops ONI that is poaching your mission of retrieving Forerunner artifacts?" Hiccup sighed deeply and turned back to the tangled creature. "No, I am not. I cannot call this in either for we do not know all the facts of this conspiracy. So, I am going to release the creature," answered Hiccup. "That is a terrific idea. Unleash the creature," snipped his brain.

"Oh, shut up," as hiccup drew his combat knife and began sawing the net.

"And there you go-," thud.

Hiccup only saw a blur of motion as the creature free from it's bounds pinned him to the ground. It's powerful paws, detaining the M20 and his chest with one and the other his right arm, effectively removing Hiccup's ability to defend himself. Hiccup's breath was rapid as his left arm, out of reach of his sidearm, gripped the beast's leg attempting to forcefully remove it. His eyes wide with fear saw his own reflection in the reptilian eyes of the creature, inches from his own.

"Well I finally ran out of my cursed luck," Hiccup thought dryly.

The creature arched it's back as it raised its head and opened its jaws revealing a row of razor-sharp teeth. Hiccup flinched at the intensity of the indigo plasma built up in the back of its throat. Hiccup braced for death as images of the charred spec ops bodies surrounding him flood his mind.

"I am sorry father," whispered Hiccup.

He shut his eyes as the creature lunged, anticipating the intense heat then death.

RRRRAAAAWWWWW! The point-blank roar overwhelmed his ear drums leaving him disoriented.

The pressure was lifted from his chest and opened his eyes just as the creature launched itself in the air and glided down the hill. Hiccup gripped the M20 with a death grip and stood up with shaking legs, his nerves shot. With harbored breaths and a few shaking steps, Hiccup collapsed. Mentally exhausted due to stress and shock, the world turned dark as he lost consciousness.

0633 hours, February 13, 2555 (Military Calendar)/ Omega Delta System, Research Outpost Berk, Planet FP-089.

Astrid inhaled a draft of chilled morning air as she watched the sun gently rise over the horizon, basking the base with the first rays of light of the day. She sat on the marine olive-green supply create, which provided her a vantage point to watch her fireteam relax and inspect their gear after the intense battle with the Promethean combat units. She overheard that name from some of the veteran base personnel. These Prometheans fought with such ferocity similar to the Covenant's zeal, but more methodically. Overall, her team performed admirably to the new challenge and she couldn't be prouder of her team. Her hands subconsciously ran the sharping stone along the alloy edge of her battle ax in her lap. The simple movement helped calm her thoughts and loosened her muscles after a battle. She groaned at the thought of her muscles, they will be stiff in a few hours, for she didn't have time to stretch when the alarms blared and had only enough time to put her armor on and link up with her fireteam. Her performance in that field was unacceptable, she needs to change her routine to maximize the amount of time to prepare for battle, for that could mean the difference in life or death on the battlefield. Also, so that the next attack does not catch them with their pants down. In this case quite literally, during the battle she witnessed a grizzly platoon sergeant half shaven with shaving cream smeared on his face, cladded in a Hawaiian boxer, UNSC undershirt, combat boots, and his armor directing the squad to focus fire on a Promethean Knight.

Commotion from further down the main intersection sparked her curiosity. The rest of her team was preoccupied with their current activities. A tall, lean marine was leading the way, followed by a large marine with a prosthetic arm and leg. With that braided mustache and prosthetic limbs, Astrid identified the bulky marine as Colonel Gobber. Her attention immediately focused on the leading marine. His combat helmet cast his features in shadows, but his body language was emitting a deep disappointment and shame in himself. Something deep inside herself was drawn to the man and it frustrated the hell out of her that she could not place the feeling. Their glazes collided and she recognized the owner of those emerald green eyes, Lieutenant Haddock, the man she pulled out of that building yesterday. That sparkle of intelligence in his eyes mesmerized her but was quickly interrupted by what she found behind his mask. A great pain of isolation and loneliness that mirrored her own pain.

Astrid's glaze left Haddock's and fell on her team, her sisters and that pain threatened to bypass her barriers. As an officer, she is held to a higher standard and social etiquette than her subordinates.

She remembered her instructor's words back at the academy on Reach, "Your subordinates are tools to use to complete the mission at hand and sacrifice if required. In this war, relationships and friendships only inhibit and cause you to hesitate to do what is required to complete the mission."

Over the past three years after they met during the Battle of Reach, with the loss of her parents on the field of battle, Fireteam Valkyrie became her family. She could never admit to her team that she saw them as sisters, nor could she remove the wall between them of her being their officer. Her greatest fear was that if she crossed that line then she would come across a situation where she would be forced to order her team to their death and not be able to give the order. Furthermore, it sucked that when she tried to socialize with the other officers, the male officers would try to hit on her or not treat her as an equal. Overall, the burden of an officer is a heavy responsibility that she carries alone.

Putting aside her depressing thoughts of the situation of her non-existent social life, Astrid took in the view of her team. Heztra was leaning against her own crate with a drawing notebook in her lap and a focused determined expression on her face. From her angle, Astrid could see the view of the stunning depiction of the sun rise being transcribed onto paper with charcoal. Again, she was impressed by their team's medic artistic ability and shook her head that Heztra always brought some form of art media with her at all times. Heather had her BR85 rifle field stripped and cleaned the major components and brushed a few loose strands of hair from her eyes, leaving a trail of gunpowder residue on her forehead. Astrid smirked as she estimated how long it would take for the raven haired ODST to notice the impromptu makeup. Cami was out cold, utilizing the skill that many soldiers learn when deployed to war zones of napping when you got the chance.

"LT are you ok?" asked Heather.

Astrid took a moment to reinforce her barriers and forced a smile on her face as she faced the concerned look on Heather's face.

"Yes, I am ok Corporal," replied Astrid.

The brief exchange alerted the rest of the team and Astrid did not want to be integrated any further.

"Team you did great work this morning. I want your reports on this engagement with what you notice and theories to improve our combat readiness by 1700 today. Go get cleaned up and get some chow. No morning training, you guys deserve a break. You all are dismissed," relayed Astrid.

The Valkyries snapped to attention and saluted in unison, "ma'am," with Astrid mirroring their salute.

Astrid watched as her team moved towards the barracks, discussing their observations during the battle. Heather locked eyes once more with Astrid not fouled by her front, sighed and joined in the conservation with the rest of the team.

Astrid exhaled the breath she found herself holding and mentally thanked Heather for not pursuing the issue. Her own emotions were out of whack with that simple glaze of Lieutenant Haddock that effortlessly breached her barrier. She felt her anger begin to boil at the mere thought of him wearing his emotions on his selves like he did. This was not good. She needed to regain control of this rage before she snapped and accidentally harmed someone. Trying to control her breathing, her mind went through possible options to vent. She could train with her ax, but she did not know where the training gym was. She could go on a run around the base to get herself familiar with locations and the layout. Yeah that was both productive and solved the issue.

She made her way back to her quarters and input her pass code into the keypad. Her quarters were small, but she did not join the UNSC for a luxury lifestyle and began unbuckling her armor and laying them on the kitchen table for her to clean later. She entered her room where her duffel bag sat on the dresser unpacked, due to her arriving the previous day. Astrid began to unpack items from the bag and sorted out the components on to her bed. Her hands picked up one of her folded physical training shirts and felt the trace of the rectangular wooden frame of a picture encased by the shirt. She carefully unfolded the shirt revealing the picture of herself in a Reach Military Academy uniform being hugged by her parents. This picture is by far her most prized possession, for it captured her last memory of her parents before they were killed by the Covenant. That day her parents surprised her on her birthday and were able to get three days of leave when their task force they were assigned to were undergoing refit at Reach shipyards. A single tear slid down her cheek as she placed the picture frame on her nightstand.

Astrid changed out of her battle stained dress uniform into her PT gear, bucked on her thigh holster with an M6 sidearm, and a utility belt with her combat knife and water bottle hard points. She redid her single braid and strove for the door. During the run, Astrid took mental notes of key locations of the base with landmarks to help her in the future with her sense of direction. She located the armory, mess hall, science wing, training wing with the elusive training gym, the brig, motor pool, hospital, and after an hour she stopped in the beehive style hanger next to the underground tarmac. Breathing heavily due to the jolts of sprints she did at random intervals of her run to vent her emotions. She took a massive drink of water from her canteen and swiped the sweat from her forehand with the back of her hand. Now refreshed, she was more aware of her surroundings and noticed the lack of personnel in the usual busy hangers. She was resting against the door frame that entered the massive tarmac that ran along the spine of the base with multiple hangers flanking either side of the runway. Her gaze wandered along the occupied hangers to give herself something to do while she drank her water and caught her breath. She spotted a handful of F-41 Broadsword multipurpose fighters, a dozen D78 Pelican Dropships, and an air frame model she did not recognize. This piqued her interest for this look to be the king of all gunships. From her angle she estimated the gunship to be 150 feet long and easy 80 feet in width. She was impressed with the array of weapon systems that the ship of war supported. The massive underbelly weapon she estimated was a mini mass accelerator cannon with enough firepower to overcome Covenant walker battle plate, which is no small feat.

Movement interrupted her analysis of the gunship and a cold chill went down her spine activating her warrior instinct. Her gut told her a threat was nearby and she gripped the handle of her M6 but not drawing the weapon. Without thinking she moved into cover of the door frame with her back against the titanium bulkhead providing cover from possible incoming fire and concealment. Alerted, she peered around the door frame and studied the hanger that housed the massive gunship. A figure was barely visible in the entrance of the gunship's cargo bay and the figure scanned the hanger. Astrid's body was flooded with adrenaline as she fought to control her breathing. She labeled this mysterious figure as the source of danger and tracked the figure as a hunter would prey. Her mind generated multiple scenarios to engage this target if turned hostile. The figure slides from cover to cover, hiding in the shadows and pausing at odd intervals. Astrid's eyes widen in realization that this person knows the security camera visual paths and blind spots. This person was an intruder and has compromised base security and must be stopped. Taking a deep breath, she drew her M6 and pulled the receiver back chambering a 12.7 mm round and entered the tarmac. She caught sight of her quarry entering the hallway and disappearing.

Astrid sprinted across the tarmac in pursuit. She braced herself at the doorway then sprung into the hallway with her M6 leveled seeing no targets nor any base personnel to assist her. She growled in annoyance at the possibility of losing her prey and sprinted once more down the hallway in search of the intruder. A corner was fast approaching, and she should brace at the corner then scan the hallway for an ambush, but she was losing the intruder. Astrid rolled the dice at full speed charged around the corner and rammed right into someone. Surprised, Astrid's grip on her M6 loosened and the weapon was flung to the ground out of reach. Her surprise was short lived, and her combat training kicked in. She performed a reverse tumble and her right hand grabbed her combat knife from the sheath in one fluid movement. Astrid landed in a combat stance with her body braced to lung with her knife and analyzed the person she rammed into. Before she could go on the offensive, she hesitated as she recognized the prone, groaning man struggling getting back on his feet. The man was the ONI agent that she briefly met when she was reporting to the General.

"Oh Thor! I am so sorry Agent. I need your help," apologized Astrid as she offered a hand to the downed ONI Agent.

The Agent took her hand and got back on to his feet. "No problem Lieutenant, its Agent Eric SonofEric. What seems to be the problem?" asked Agent Eric.

"We may have an intruder in the base. I was in pursuit of the suspect after I spotted it sneaking around in the hanger," replied Astrid as she retrieved her M6 off the ground.

"Sadly, I lost contact with the suspect just now," admitted Astrid.

"This is a problem, by now the suspect could be in a number of locations. I will organize a search and forward this to the General. Do you get a good look at the intruder?" Asked Agent Eric.

Astrid shook her head, "The intruder was a trained infiltrator and I was on the opposite side of the tarmac."

"That is for-unfortunate. Good work Lieutenant. We will take it from here. Write a full incident report of the encounter to Col. Jorgensen," acknowledged Agent Eric.

Astrid nodded her head and watched him leave slightly confused by his last remark.

Agent Eric jogged further down the hallway, giving out orders in his wrist pad all the way before disappearing around the corner. Astrid was baffled by Agent Eric's last comment and walked back to the hangar deep in thought. Astrid found herself at the scene of the encounter and replayed it over and over again. The base alarm went off and the hangar was organized into chaos once more. Marine fire teams were searching every room and technicians were taking inventory of all aircraft. A team of technicians, being led by a muscular technician with a thick brown beard, ran past Astrid towards the massive gunship.

"Excuse me, can you tell me what that gunship is?" asked Astrid.

The muscular technician stopped by Astrid, "Yes ma'am, I am the crew chief for that beast, in charge of that lot to keep that gunship maintained and operational ready for the General," responded the Crew Chief.

"That is the General's personal transport?" asked Astrid bewildered.

"Yes ma'am, that is the prototype G81 Condor Gunship. The General pulled some strings to accelerate the trails and got approved to field test this beast. If you don't mind ma'am, my crew and I got a lot of work to do to get Skull Crusher combat ready for tomorrow's mission" hinted the Crew Chief.

"Sorry and thanks for answering my question Crew Chief," apologized Astrid.

The Crew Chief nodded his head in respect, "ma'am" and ran off to rejoin his crew.

This information just compounded the questions already crammed in her mind and began to cause her a headache as she attempted to make sense of the data. An intruder was on the General's Gunship, said intruder disappeared when she collided with Agent Eric, and finally that last remark of Agent Eric. It did not make any sense. She was a front line combat officer commanding ODSTs. She is given a mission and she complete said mission with no need to see the big picture. This new line of thinking was exhausting.

"Ah, there you are Lasse," Astrid's line of thinking was interrupted, and she looked up to see Col. Gobber approach her.

"Sir, you were looking for me?" asked Astrid.

"No, I was not, but this is a good opportunity to pass on your next assignment," replied Gobber.

"You and your team are going to be undergoing war game exercises the next two weeks starting tomorrow at 0900 at the training gym. This is to provide your team experience in fighting the Prometheans in a safe environment," continued Gobber.

With a wolfish grin on her face, "sir you won't be disappointed by our performance," confidently replied Astrid.

"Oh, I almost forgot you will be teaming up with Lieutenant Haddock's team for the duration of the war games," smiled Gobber.

Astrid's grin disappeared as the mention of that name brought memories and emotions to brush against her emotion barrier. "Can you say that again sir?"


	4. Chapter 4

1947 hours, February 13, 2555 (Military Calendar)/ Omega Delta System , Research Outpost Berk, Planet FP-089.

Hiccup's eyes opened and closed as he fought to regain consciousness. Slowly his mind started recalling the memories that led him to his current predicament. First with his near fruitless search for the UFTS, then his discovery. Hiccup groaned as he rolled onto his back to see the sun approaching the far end of the horizon. This detail caused alarms to blare in his head alerting him to his situation. Hiccup blinked a few times and a digital clock appeared on his HUD, 1948.

"Oh, Thor! I must have been unconscious for a few hours after that creature pinned me," mumbled Hiccup as he sat up in a sitting position.

The low whine of dropship engines slowly increased in pitch as the aircraft approached buzzing in Hiccup's ears. Hiccup did not recognize the whistling of the UNSC work horse, the D78 Pelican Dropship engine, which caused fear and concern to surface. With renewed vigor, Hiccup searched for avenues of concealment to asset the developing situation. To Hiccup's relief, a few meters away was a low ditch with a fallen tree providing coverage from the air. The foliage created shadows from the ever lowering sun, which provided the needed sanctuary from whoever was approaching. Without hesitation, Hiccup dashed over and dived into the foliage as the mystery craft arrived over the clearing. Quickly, Hiccup rubbed mud onto his face to increase his ability to conceal himself in the shadows.

Once completed, Hiccup positioned himself where he had view of the clearing and the space above. Keeping still, Hiccup's mouth gaped open in astonishment at what he witnessed. The surroundings and foliage were disturbed by the vortex of wind being generated by the hovering transport, but the source was not visible. All of a sudden, a sleek, black transport, slightly smaller than it's cousin, the D78 Pelican materialized. Immediately, Hiccup recognized the design as a MV-13 Owl stealth dropship. The back door of the transport opened and two repelling lines fell to the surface. Two humanoid figures in spec op armor descended by the ropes. Once landed, the two spec op agents advanced a few meters before taking a knee, scanning the surroundings for threats. Four more agents repelled down the ropes, who quickly formed up with their team members. The hydraulic hiss of the grips securing the M194 Recovery Warthog to the rear of the Owl loosen, dropping the vehicle to the ground. The dropship vanished and the clearing was peaceful once more.

Hiccup saw who appeared to be the team medic made his rounds to the deceased agents, "Sir they are all dead. The dragon is the cause for the entire team's death," reported the medic.

Hiccup was stunned that the creature he freed was no other than a dragon. He checked if the mission recorder was still functioning and the recorder display in his HUD only showed static. A sense of dread creeped over him and Hiccup attempted to activate the communications display on his HUD. Static feedback answered him with each channel he opened. Great these muttonheads must be jamming the local area, thought Hiccup.

Another agent was kneeling by what remained of the carbon netting, "sir, Gamma 7 must have hit the target with the mauler before they were killed, then afterwards the target escaped."

The tallest and broadest agent approached the second agent. His body radiated anger that sent chills down Hiccup's spine. With brute strength, the massive agent grabbed the agent by the neck and lifted him off the ground.

The leader began to squeeze. In a deep solemn voice, "you guaranteed that the maluer would incapacitate our query. Now Gamma 7 is lost and my brother hates setbacks. I should kill you now for it would be mercy for what my brother does to ineffective assets."

The agent had his hands on the leader's forearm trying to loosen his clamp of a grip, "sir… I won… won't fail next… time. Give me one… last chance," gasped the agent.

"I hope so. Your life depends on it," the Leader responded coldly and then he released the agent. "Hunters sterilize the area. We were never here," ordered the Leader.

Hiccup watched for the next hour as the Hunters packed Gamma 7 into the Warthog and removed any trace that either team existed. He listened carefully as the whine of the Warthog's engine grew more faint with each passing second. Only could he no longer hear the engine did Hiccup crawl out from under the safety of the log. Hiccup searched the clearing for anything that the Hunters missed, but came up short. The orange, yellow, and red hues in the sky reminded Hiccup of how much time has passed since he began his mission. Frustrated at the fruits of his labor, Hiccup pulled out his compass from his utility belt and obtained a bearing back to base. During the journey Hiccup's mind began to wander after a few minutes of jogging, analyzing every detail of the encounter. The most notable facts are that these Hunters knew how to cover their tracks and that they were well funded. Both facts are extremely concerning since the research outpost was funded by ONI and now a clandestine operation is operating in the shadows. Furthermore, these agents have a huge operation under the noses of ONI and their target are the dragons. The more Hiccup thought, the more dire the situation is becoming. These UFT… dragons are the ultimate in atmosphere fighting force. Modern missile guidance systems and radar can't seem to lock on them. In addition, anything under 50 caliber bounce off the scales. Who ever had control of the dragons can change how ground wars are fought. "Maybe if the dragons are trainable and combine Spartans with a dragon that would be the greatest fighting force in the galaxy?" thought Hiccup.

Hiccup's foot collided with a stubborn rock and with him in his current state of awareness. He stumbled and with a thud landed ungracefully, once more, face first on the ground.

"Why? Why do you hate me so much Universe? Why could you not let those beautiful Valkyries carry me to Valhalla and end my suffering?" Hiccup asked angrily, his voice muffled by the ground.

Again no answer responded to his dilemma. Sighing, Hiccup looked up, his mind alert to his surroundings and saw that he was at the edge of the forest with Berk's security parameter fence 200 meters in front of him. Hiccup activated the zoom ability on his HUD and grinned maddenly at his good fortune, for he spotted the patrol of two Marines pass his breach in the fence. Taking advantage of the situation, Hiccup started a 15 minute timer in his HUD display indicating the estimated time for the patrol to come back around and activated the subroutines with his tacpad once more.

Hiccup braced himself for the short sprint as he waited for his program to spoof the sensors and cameras. A green icon flashed at him in his HUD display and he dashed across the clearing and pulled the chain fencing back to allow him access to the base. Once on the other side, Hiccup positioned the fencing back to its original position and sank into the shadows casted by the nearest building. He snaked his way through an alleyway only to pause when base personale came into view. Upon reaching the main road, Hiccup scanned either direction and seeing no one saw his chance to get home. He confidently strolled onto the main street with no move to conceal his movements. The journey to his quarters was uneventful with no one else paying him any attention. Hiccup reached his quarters and punched in the code to unlock his door. The keypad display flashes green with an audible kick of the bolt disengaging and Hiccup stepped in and closed the door.

Hiccup dropped his rucksack by his feet as he unlaced his mud smeared boots and removed them to be placed on a rack. His hands automatically moved to turn the lights on only to not meet any resistance from the switch. Hiccup studied the switch with a baffled expression as the switch indicated that the lights were already on. He carefully turned the corner and to his astonishment, his father was at the table with a block of wood in his lap calmly whittling.

"Dad! What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in the command center at this hour?" stated Hiccup shocked.

General Stock ceased his work, "Son, I came here to tell you about your next assignment and I wanted to do this in person. Please take a seat." Hiccup walks over to the table and sits across from his father, "Dad I also have something I would like to tell you."

Both paused and took a deep breath. "Dad, I don't want to learn how to be a combat officer"/ "Son, I think it's time you learn how to be a combat officer."

"What!?" both said at the same time.

"We got time son, speak your piece," Calmly stated General Haddock.

"No dad, what you have to say is official business. You go first," countered Hiccup.

"Alright, I am assigning you the command of a Fireteam with the callsign Rider. You will meet your team and start training as a cohesive unit tomorrow at 0900 at the training gym."

Hiccup's mind was reeling at this development and the time required to train a new team. Time that he needed to investigate the shadow ONI operation.

"Oooohhh man I should have gone first. Because I was thinking... You know we have a surplus of combat officers, but do we have enough cyber security officers or officers supervising the lab wing," argued Hiccup with exaggerated hand gestures.

"You will need this," ignored Stoick as he shoved a stack of personnel files towards Hiccup.

Hiccup changed tactics, "General, I lack the necessary time to train a Fireteam with my other duties to base operations."

With a laugh, "Of course you do. I have assigned Lieutenant Hofferson's team with yours for joint training. Killing two armigers with one grenade haha!" Stoick replied.

"Rephasing, I can not lead other soldiers," retorted Hiccup.

"You will learn to lead other soldiers," countered Stoick.

"I foresee this ending very badly dad," sassed Hiccup.

Stoick stood up from the table, his expression more serious, "Lieutenant, this is serious! You are no longer responsible for only your life, but your team's as well. From this point on your priority is to prepare them to fight and survive battles against the Prometheans. No more of this," he gestured to Hiccup.

"You just gestured to all of me," cracked Hiccup.

"Am I clear Lieutenant?" Commanded Stoick.

Hiccup sighed defeated, "yes sir."

Stoick began making his way to the front door, "good, train hard, I will be back… probably."

Under Hiccup's breath, "I will be here... maybe."

Hiccup waited for his father's massive form to disappear around the corner before his upper body collapsed onto the table. His forehead laid on top of the stack of files and he gave a tired sigh from both mental and physical exhaustion.

With his voice muffled by the table, "well this is great," muttered Hiccup. "I have an ONI shadow operation I need to expose and if I am discovered, Agent Eric will arrange a covenant accident to remove me. On top of that I now have a fireteam to train and lead. My life is just fantastic."

Sighing once more, Hiccup raised up his head and opened the first file, "this is going to be a long night."

0900 hours, February 14, 2555 (Military Calendar)/ Omega Delta System , Research Outpost Berk, Planet FP-089.

Astrid sat on a bench in a locker room with the other women of the training session. She scanned the room as she pulled the zipper of her body suit up to her neck. She spotted her team and three other women that she did not recognize. All were putting on the same body suits that looked to be composed of flexible hexagonal sensory nodes that gave off a metallic sheen.

"Hey LT, why do we have to wear these suits under our gear again if we are just doing combat scenarios?" asked Camicaze as she indicated to her body.

With a neutral expression, "because Corporal, if you were paying attention during the Col. Gobber's briefing then you would know that this training gym is a prototype facility that incorporates Forerunner tech. The system utilizes the holographic projectors, millions of pneumatic risers, props, and simulated sensory information fed through our neural interface to generate realistic environments. So, it is an augmented reality simulation," replied Astrid as she began attaching her ODST armor.

Camicaze sat back down on the bench and propped her head up with an arm as she smiled dreamly, "Oh, I was paying attention alright LT. Just with that lean, sandy blond marine in the first row. He was giving off a crazy, chaotic aura that I find irresistible."

After a short pause, Camicaze gave a smirk, "We have been stationed here a few days, have any male officers caught your icy glaze LT?"

Memories of a certain lieutenant's green eyes filled with intelligence and pain threatened to cause her cheeks to flush. Her stomach did a flip as she exercised her willpower to keep her stoic exterior. Again that feeling was back like ocean waves colliding against a sea wall. Each time that blasted Lieutenant Haddock's name is mentioned or memories of him resurface sparks another wave of these feelings. These feelings are annoying her because she never had these feelings before and now doesn't know how to deal with them. She turned away from the probing Corporal using her action of attaching another piece of her armor as an excuse.

With disconcert, "the men here are muttonheads, get your mind out of the gutter and focus on training or you will be taken out of the game by sim rounds."

A slim sandy blond female marine already in her armor approached Camicaze and placed her arm around Camicaze's neck in a comrady fashion. "Well hellooo, I am Specialist Ruffnut Thorston. You guys must be the ODST fireteam that just arrived a few days ago. Heard that you guys were badasses during the raid. Allow my brother and I to provide a proper welcome after my team wipe the floor with you guys. You guys already lost before we even started since you all have the worst luck to be teamed with Lieutenant Useless. Like come on, Lieutenant Haddock leading a team? That has disaster written all over it."

Astrid noticed the shoulders of a short, slim brunette with freckles tense at hearing those words. The Marine couldn't be more than 18 years old fresh from specialty training school. This sparked Astrid's rage for this marine to bad mouth another's commanding officer was just bad tac and bad for unit corisean.

"That is enough Specialist Thorston keep your comments to yourself about other officers," ordered Astrid sternly.

"What? I was just chatting with a fellow sister-in-arms about the truth?" countered Ruffnut.

"That doesn't change what I just said Specialist. I suggest you should prepare with your team for the ass kicking I will be delivering… personally," stated Astrid coldly.

Ruffnut's smile disappeared after one look into Astrid's glare, "my brother is single please don't break him," she sangsong into Camicaze's ear then left the locker room.

Astrid took several deep breaths to reel in her anger before sitting down next to the brunette marine. The marine did her best to hide the fact of the possibility of her commander being incompetent frighten her, but Astrid saw her hands shake as she finished attaching the last pieces of armor and the drainage of color from her face.

"What is your name marine?" asked Astrid.

The brunette eyes widen at the lieutenant insignia on Astrid's armor. In a shy voice, "ma'am, I am not a marine. I am Navy, Hospitalman Apprentice Juila Heitz, the corpsman assigned to Fireteam Rider."

"Well Doc, don't listen to Specialist Thorston, she is just trying to get under your skin. Have faith in your commander. I have a feeling that he is going to surprise us all," replied Astrid.

Gobber's voice appeared over the intercom, "Fireteams Rider, Valkyrie, Draugr, and Thor report to your starting positions. War Games will cominse in five minutes."

"Come on Doc we got a game to win," encouraged Astrid as she donned her helmet and left the locker room.

Heitz gave a small smile, "yes ma'am."

Astrid exited the locker room and was stunned at what she witnessed. From her vantage point, a box canon that she approximated to be 300 yards long and 100 yards wide greeted her with piercing blue skies. The terrain was rocky, making the future battlefield a maze and close corridors hell. Off in the distance she saw a UNSC Forward Operating Base with blue trim. Next to her was a duplicate of the base on the other side of the field but with red trim instead. Astrid glazed at her teammates through her visor and saw that Heather had her helmet at her hip and the look of disbelievement on her face as she too took in the scenery. Camicaze on the other hand had her helmet on so her expression was hidden, but after years of working with each other she could read her body language. She too was surprised, for her helmet was tilted upward to get a better angle on the simulated sky. A waypoint appeared on Astrid's visior with the destination of the closer red base snapped her focus back to the current situation.

Astrid gestured towards the red base with her helmet, "Double time Valkyries! We are on the red team. Lets link up with Lieutenant Haddock and his team."

As Fireteam Valkyrie approaches the base, a well built marine with red hair just noticeable under his combat helmet, and a three claw gash tattoo over his left eye advances on the fireteam emitting hostile intent. Heather notices this marine and recognizes who the marine is and quickened her pace to intercept the marine.

"You. I thought you crawled back to our clan after our last encounter," Heather spoke through gritted teeth.

With a vicious grin, "Oh I have Heather," he replied with equal distaste.

The pair stood a few feet apart staring intently into each other's eyes, neither making a move. Astrid, seeing the encounter take place, was about to break up the possible fight but hesitated because Heather's body language was emitting happiness and not rage.

From her position, she saw Lieutenant Haddock break from the rest of his team to intervene, "Corporal Ozouf stand-."

He was interrupted by the booming laughter of Heather and the maniacal laughter of Corporal Ozouf then the two of them embraced each other with a hug.

The pair broke the hug, "Dagur I thought you were posted on the UNSC Dauntless?" questioned Heather.

"I was sis, but then I got new orders for Outpost Berk. Oh, the clan is doing well and set up a new colony on Berserkr in the Xidia Epsilon system," casually replied Dagur.

"That is great news Dagur! We will catch up later. Now we got Fireteams Draugr and Thor to crush," responded Heather with a wolfish grin.

Astrid saw Hiccup nervously cough a few times to gain their attention, "Lets gear up so we can develop a plan of action."

Astrid nodded and both Fireteams assembled around a weapon station inside the base to load up.

As the teams grabbed their gear, Astrid advanced on Hiccup to the point that she was right in front of him.

Between their differences in height she had to look up to address him, "Between the two of us I am senior and will be in overall command for this team. You will be my second in command if I am incapacitated. Is that clear Lieutenant?" she stated seriously.

Hiccup's hand rubbed the back of his head as he nervously laughed, "haha that's the obvious choice for you to lead. It is a miracle that the gym hasn't exploded yet," he sarcastically retorted.

Astrid's anger flared, she grabbed Hiccup by his armor chest piece handle and marched them a dozen paces away from the rest of the team. She took her helmet off and clipped it to her hip as she forced Hiccup's head to her head height. Her ocean blue eyes filled with icy fire meet his forest green eyes filled with pain and inconfindance. Her stomach did a flip after glazing into his eyes, which only fueled her rage. Astrid saw Hiccup's face drain of color and then bet red in embarrassment at their proximity.

In a harsh whisper, "Hiccup rule number one in leading is to have confidence in yourself especially when you have no idea what to do. This is the difference between life and death for not just you, but the people under your command. Your team needs faith in their commander that he can make decisions then follow through with them to the end. This attitude you have is toxic to your team dynamic and you need to get rid of it. You are an officer so act like one."

She let go of the handle and saw Hiccup rebound to his height with a shocked expression. Astrid put her helmet back on as Hiccup's expression swapped from shock, to deep thought, then to harden determination. Her heart skipped a beat in reaction to his last expression and she felt a small smile form at the corner of her lips.

The pair rejoined the team and gathered their gear. In a professional manner, Hiccup spoke and pointed to each member of his team, "Lieutenant Hofferson that is Hospital Apprentice Julia Heitz, our Navy corpsman, Corporal Dagur Ozouf, our close quarters specialist, and Sargent Thuggory Andersen, our heavy weapon's specialist."

Astrid duplicate the action with her team, "That is Hospitalman Jenra Heztra, team corpsman, Corporal Camicaze, team recon expert, and Corporal Heather Ozouf, team close quarters specialist."

Astrid studied the newly formed fireteam and saw that they had potential to become an effective team. The tall muscular brute of a marine with sandy, blond military cut hair, that was Sergeant Andersen lifted a M739 Squad automatic weapon with ease. To Astrid's approval he inspected the weapon with professional familiarity then attached six drum magazines to his vest.

Seeing her glaze, "I like to be prepared for anything ma'am in this case, bringing a lot of ammo," Thuggory smirked as he winked.

Astrid rolled her eyes as she grabbed a MA5B assault rifle and attached the weapon to her vest. She began to fill her ammo pouches with 7.62 AP magazines and took a deep breath before addressing everyone, "our strategy for this mission is to stay on the offensive to keep the other team on the defensive. This will allow us to choose where we fight and keep them reacting to us."

Hiccup politely interrupted, "Lieutenant Hofferson if I may, this may help you with developing your plan."

Astrid was slightly annoyed with his interruption and gritted her teeth to stop herself from snapping at him and gave a nod of approval. She watched Hiccup key commands into his Tacpad on his wrist briefly. Her eyes widened in surprise as a 3D hologram of the simulated gym was emitted from his wrist to hovering over the center of the table.

Astrid's eyes narrowed as she studied Hiccup's face, "how did you acquire a map of the terrain Lieutenant?"

"He he I… um… retrieved it… by legal means," sheepishly replied Hiccup as he nervously rubbed the back of his head and beamed a mischievous smile at her. Astrid depolarized her helmet temperallary to give him a deadpan look as she raised a single eyebrow at that poor response.

Her glaze went back to studying the map when she saw a high bluff that overlooked the blue team's side of the map, "Cami can you reach this position and provide our advance with overwatch?"

Cami analyzed the spot located on the map, "I can LT. Do not have lines of sight for no man's land to help deal with the Prometheans tho."

"We will deal with the Prometheans, you just cover our withdrawal action when we steal their flag," stated Astrid.

Cami perked up at the word steal, "Steal LT? If all we are doing is stealing a flag just send me in! It would be so easy I could steal their belts while I am at it! We Bog Burglars are the best in the business!"

"Consider this to be your punishment for losing focus during the briefing Corporal," countered Astrid.

Cami's shoulder's slouched defeated, "thats harsh LT."

Hiccup pointed to the overlook then to two paths between the two bases with one lower and the other higher, "Lieutenant Hofferson, may I suggest that Sargent Andersen accompany Corporal Camicaze to the overlook and support in the overwatch with his M739. Then I lead the remainder of my team through the lower route, while you take the upper?"

Astrid nodded her head in approval, "That's the plan, get to your positions and may the Gods grant us victory."

Astrid glanced at everyone to acknowledge their understanding and was met with nods and looks of determination. She saw Cami lift her SRS99 AM rifle off the weapon rack by the handle and placed the stock of the weapon on the ground with the barrel pointed towards the ceiling. This freed her other hand to fill her ammo pouches with the deadly 14.5x114mm slugs for the sniper rifle. Astrid found that the weapon was almost as tall as her subordinate amusing and led Jenra and Heather to their starting point. Astrid glanced at Hiccup's starting position to see Hiccup gripping his BR55HB rifle with a death grip with Heitz behind him armed with a M20 SMG equally tensed. Dagur with his M90 shotgun had a crazy, deranged smile on his face. Even though she heard stories about Dagur through Heather, seeing him in person did not settle her concern with that marine's state of mind.

Col. Gobber's voice echo across the gym renewed her focus to the task at hand, "commence War Game!" announced Gobber.

Immediately, dozens of dark blue and black slipspace portals appeared throughout the area and unleashed the Prometheans. Packs of the dog like Prometheans swarmed the rocks, supported by the human like armigers, and strengthened by the warrior knights. A wolfish smile formed on her lips as adrenaline coursed through her veins. She gripped her MA5B and switched to burst mode to engage the Prometheans at the current distance. Fifty meters in front of her team, just before the beginning of the rocky maze was a dozen crawlers and a knight. Astrid trained the aim assist crosshairs in her HUD on the closest crawler and pulled the trigger.

"Cami, Andersen cover fire! Target the knight and thin out the crawlers! Rider and Valkyrie stagger formation! Rider leapfrog, go first we cover!" shouted Astrid over the team channel.

Seven green lights flickered in her HUD signaling that the team acknowledged her orders.

Astrid dove to the ground and sent a trio of 7.62 bursts down range annihilating two crawlers. The roar of Andersen's M739 unleashed a hail of bullets that quickly cut down the swarm of crawlers which was joined by the dual crack of Cami's SRS99 slugs that slammed into the knight. The surviving Prometheans respond with a volley of particle bolts that filled the air with scorching death. Astrid monitored Hiccup's advance as he and his team sprinted the fifty meters dodging left then right to avoid bolts fired at them. Leading them was Dagur, who yelled a berserker war cry the entire charge. Three Armigers attempted to intercept their advance by materializing in their path but were halted by Dagur charging the closest one, flipping it over him and finishing it with a shotgun shell to it's head. Heitz and Hiccup focused fire on the second and the third was gutted by a subsonic 14x144mm slug from Cami.

Hiccup's team skidded to a halt at the beginning of the rock maze using a large boulder as cover from Prometheans further in the maze. Astrid noticed Hiccup's status icon flash three times in quick succession indicating that they were providing cover fire. She stood up and began to sprint across the field, "move it Valkyries! To the rock line!"

In an arrow formation, the fireteam made the crossing with Astrid in front with Heztra and Heather on either side. Twenty-five meters in duel red lasers trained on her chest. With a yelp of surprise and without thinking about the movement. She performed a combat roll to the left as a particle beam pierced the air where she just vacated. Springing from the roll back to full sprint, she fired several bursts in the direction the shot came from.

A moment later, a jet stream followed by a load crack, shot towards the same direction, "Sniper down LT!" cheerfully reported Cami over the team channel. Astrid acknowledged the kill with a click over the team channel.

Astrid and the other Valkyries slammed into the boulder that Fireteam Rider was taking shelter behind. With labored breaths, she peered around the edge of the boulder only to rapidly retract her head as multiple particle bolts from a knight and four armigers drilled into the rock, scorching the surface and causing fragments of rock to scatter.

"Valkyries stack up! Grenades then breach," ordered Astrid. Two green lights winked in her HUD in acknowledgement with Heather stacking up in front of her with a grenade in her hand and Heztra behind her.

Astrid readied her own grenade, "Execute!" As one, Heather and Astrid stepped into the opening and threw the explosives into the center of the Promethean formation, before retreating back behind cover. A moment later, the ground shook with the dual thumps of the grenades detonating with the rewarding screech of Prometheans taking superheated shrapnel. The trio advanced from their cover, weapons ready.

The smoke from the detonations glowed red as Prometheans disintegrated obscured Astrid's vision. She gritted her teeth in annoyance as she swept her sector of fire with her rifle, searching for Prometheans. A shift in the smoke caught her attention and she swung her rifle to bear. A cold chill hit her spine, causing her to shiver. Her adrenaline kicked in for she learned from the past that the chill was a warning for immediate danger.

Astrid cautioned her team,"be alert Valkyries. We are-." An inhuman, mechanical screech interrupted her with rapid flashes of red that appeared and disappeared in the smoke. Each flash drew closer to her team with the screeching rising in pitch. Astrid calmly switched her rifle mode to full auto and pulled the trigger.

"Contact front! Engage," ordered Astrid.

From the corner of her vision, she saw to her horror, a Promethean knight with pulsating red crystals on it's back materialize next to Heather. Heather unloaded an entire magazine from her MA6 at point blank range as she backpedaled to get out of the melee range of the knight. Astrid pivoted and joined her subordinate in a crossfire to bring down the knight. The combined fire chipped away at the Forerunner armor alloy plating as the knight screeched in rage. It closed in on Heather as she attempted to reload her weapon and backhanded her with enough force to send her a few meters into a rock. With a thud Heather landed at the base of the rock not moving. Astrid felt a tear run down her cheek as she studied the knight searching for weak points in its armor. Time slowed down as her senses were amplified, she could feel each kick of her rifle stock in her shoulder and see the spent bullet casings being discharged for her weapon.

"Look behind the knight's arms," a feminine voice whispered in the back of her mind.

Astrid did and her eyes widened at the discovery. Right behind the arms of the knight were cylindrical jets of some sort. She shifted her fire to the left one. The knight was now advancing on her, but she held her ground in defiance and rage for it harming one of her sisters. After the tenth round, the jet exploded, causing the knight to stagger and ripping off a junk of it's armor.

"Target the other jet Heztra!" order Astrid.

"Dodge" stated the voice again.

Without thinking, she dived to the left and rolled underneath the swing of the particle blade that descended on her. A burst from Heztra's M20 caused the second jet to explode and reveal the knight's core.

"No time to reload your weapon, stab the core with your knife," stated the voice.

Astrid did not argue against the mysterious voice. She drew her combat knife and charged the knight. Astrid focused on the knight power, core cutting with power on it's back and used a nearby short boulder to boost her jump.

Astrid let loose a cry of vengeance as she gripped the knife in both hands and sailed through the air. Her knife jammed into the central housing of the core, which short circuited the core causing it to ignite the power source. The explosion caught her by surprise and she was launched in the air. The ground approached at an alarming speed as she attempted to shift her weight in midair to soften the landing. She was partially successful, for she twisted her body so she would roll upon impact. Pain shot through her hip as she impacted the ground and began to roll. Her vision was a blur as the ground and sky meshed together as she rolled. Her tumble was halted by a sudden sharp pain to the back of her head. She gave out a surprised yelp of pain as her head collided with a rock. All of her resolve and strength began to fade as she laid there.

I need to get up. GET UP ASTRID! She thought.

She placed her hands on the ground and summoned her resolve to push herself up.

My team needs me. My sisters need me. Her jarred thoughts wandered.

Her arms began to shake as her strength left her and her face pummeled into the ground. Her entire body ached and her head was pounding from the rock.

I am so tired. I should rest, she thought.

Her eyelids grew heavy and the sounds of combat grew more faint.

The team channel in her HUD exploded. "LIEUTENANT HADDOCK! LIEUTENANT HOFFERSON IS DOWN!" cried out Heztra.

She could no longer hear what else was being said over the channel, but from her fading vision, she saw the trio of combat boots approach her. She fought the desire to give into the bliss of unconsciousness as a pair of hands lifted her off the ground. One was supporting her neck and head and the other her legs in a bridal style. She briefly opened her eyes one last time and saw that Hiccup was carrying her. She wanted to be angry at him and demand that he let her go then beat the crap out of him for touching her. But surprisingly, she felt safe in his presence and her cheeks flushed red. Thank the gods that she still had her helmet on to hide her expression. Ok Haddock I will let you live this time. With that darkness finally overwhelmed her resistance and she succumbed to unconsciousness.


End file.
